If faith in the leading of the Spirit is lost, and we desire to be led, there is nothing flatters and pleases some men more than to lead us; to be religious “superiors,” with an usurped authority which practically sets aside that of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. In verse 28 observe that the apostle does not say “you” but “we.” It is the same in his second Epistle, (ver. 8). He felt his responsibility for the sheep (so Paul in 1 Thess. 5:23 R.V. and Peter, 1 Peter 5:1-4). In 1 Thess. 2:19, we see the joy of Paul in the hope of meeting in glory those to whom he had ministered here.
John looks seriously at another possibility, and touchingly says, “And now, my children, abide in Him that when He shall appear we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” What true pastors the apostles were! (Read Rom. 14:10-12; 1 Cor. 4:5; 2 Cor. 5:10.) The thought of that supreme moment when the Lord Himself will give to every saint the fullest light on the things in his course that have been acceptable to Him, and on those that have not been acceptable—His final judgment on the good and the evil which each hath done, and about which there is hesitancy now—this thought leads to the third great subject of this Epistle, a very full and clear description of the two “seeds” that now are in the world and of their doings. There are those who are of God, and there are those who are of the devil (3:8, 9); and the issues of life can be only of the same nature as their source, an oft-forgotten truth.
God is righteous; the devil sinneth from the beginning, that is, from the moment of his fall he has done nothing but evil. Now “if ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that does righteousness, is horn of him.” Man by nature does unrighteousness, cover it over as he may. (See from Gen. 6:5 to Eph. 2:3 and the final and eternal judgment of the lost, Rev. 20:15.) Then let the child of God in taking a step, in doing a deed, yea in speaking a word, keep in mind that he is “born of God.” He is not indebted to “blood” (that is natural generation, however godly his parents) “nor to the will of the flesh, nor to the will of man.” For this endearing relationship to God (John 1:12, 13) is the work of God alone, and the spring of love that was in His heart, when He begat His child, is as full for that child all the way through as at first. Hence the rapturous joy with which the third chapter of our Epistle begins; surely, written by one who knew it well.
1 John 3:1. With holy delight and admiration the greatness of the love of God is set before the new affections of the quickened soul. “Behold what love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God.” The personal ministry of the Lord when here was ever to this end, that His disciples should know and enjoy this manner of love (John 17:6-26); and in His absence the Holy Spirit continues the work in every believer (Rom. 8:15, 16). The disciples were not only taught the truth of it, but witnessed it livingly in Him. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father” (John 1:14), and of “the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18). They thus affirm His eternity, but equally declare that they beheld Him in the relationship and the affection which they were called to share. “My Father, and your Father” (John 20:17). With reverence we feel and own His pre-eminence: He—infinite, divine, eternal: we—begotten in time, who were once children of wrath even as others (Eph. 2:3); and are prepared to read the remainder of our verse in the heart-cheering light of this beginning” — Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” All His goodness, His innumerable acts of mercy, did not shield Him from the world's hatred (John 15:24). He who was the well-beloved of the Father was despised and rejected of men. Can we not see the fitness of the “therefore” to follow such a “because?”
Again in verse 2 the apostle says “Beloved,” addressing those whom the world knows not, many of them suffering from its hatred. He sees them in all the dignity of their relationship to God, his own enjoyed relationship far more to him than his apostleship. “Beloved, now are we children of God;” not a question, not a doubt about it. There is more than this. He looks at what we shall be when Jesus is manifested (or appears). Then all that is unlovely in us will forever pass away, “we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is;” or, as expressed by Paul, we shall be “conformed to the image of His Son, that He may be the first-born among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). This divine way of regarding those who believe in Jesus is important, and a study of John 17:20 to 24 will greatly help to an understanding of the verses we are considering. The desires of the Lord are, by the Spirit, very present with the apostle.
In verse 3 our practical condition is brought powerfully home to the conscience, “Every one that hath this hope (set) on Him purifieth himself even as He is pure.” How feebly have we estimated His perfect purity (see John 17:19), and sought in the light of it to be separated to God from all that is evil! He was, is, and ever will be pure. As in Him, there is no spot on us (1 Cor. 6:11); but as to walk here, though clean every whit, we have need continually to have the feet washed. Contact with the world, unless cleansed as to our ways by the word, defiles us. A study of John 13:1-10 will throw much light on this, and check the proneness to rest in present attainment as well as self-complacency. When Stephen was wholly occupied with the Lord Jesus as He is, “looking up steadfastly into heaven,” how closely he resembled Him when here in grace (see Luke 23:34, 46 and Acts 7:60), and how the world, yea the most religiously enlightened in it, knew him not, even as they knew not his Lord and Savior. He was full of the Holy Ghost Whom they always resisted; and while he was praying for them, they were stoning him
Now (ver. 4), it is doing sin that defileth men, and sin is—what? Not as in the A.V., “the transgression of the law” for sin was in the world when there was no law (Rom. 5:13, 14), but “sin is lawlessness” (see R. V.), and we are conceived in it. Rebelliousness is natural to us. As Paul, looking at man as man, says, “the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7).
John on the other hand, looking only on the life bestowed on the believer, says, “the seed of God abideth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (ver. 9). He, in this important statement, leaves aside the flesh which Paul affirms never does anything but sin. The Christian as a Christian, does not live after the flesh, although exposed to being drawn aside by it. These first principles of our most holy faith must be apprehended to follow the teaching of this chapter. For it deals with the fact, solemn to realize, that God sets His children in the presence of the children of the devil as a testimony for His glory, and for their blessing (see Phil. 2:15, 16); God loved the world, and sent His Son, not to judge it, but that it might be saved (John 3:17); and He is the propitiation for the whole world (1 John 2:2).
The difficulty therefore in the case of the sinner lies not in the fact of his fallen state, nor in the hopelessness of making the flesh better, nor in the powerlessness of nature to overcome the wicked one. It lies wholly in his unwillingness to look to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, for salvation from it all. When the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, the difficulty was not with the fiery serpents, however numerous; nor was it in the deadly character of the poison instilled by their bite; but whether or not the bitten would look to the serpent which Moses by God's command had lifted up, and realize in the new life given the undoing of the work of the serpents. So here in verse 5, “the Son of God was manifested to take away our sins,” and in verse 8, “to destroy” (lit. undo)” the works of the devil,” the latter as truly as the former. We are not only to rejoice in full and everlasting forgiveness —for if He shall have taken away our sins, who shall bring them back?—but the works of the devil, and all his untiring energy of evil, are overcome, and in the believer undone. The prey is taken from the mighty, the lawful captive is delivered (Isa. 49:24), and
“He owns himself the Savior's prize,
Mercy from first to last.”
Hence the ninth verse is all-important. The seed of God is not only communicated to, but remaineth in, every one that is born of Him. There is no such seed in the unbeliever. He may be accredited as having it by those who assume to be the church, but to rest on that is to build on sand. The seed of God is the new life from God by which a man becomes a partaker of the divine nature, and joys in God. Can the receiver of it lose it? Never. “It remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.” Faith, strong in its simplicity, will do this word of God justice, and say with Paul, “I have been crucified (perfect tense) with Christ, yet I live; no longer I, but Christ liveth in me,” and will add, conscious of need, “that life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith (the faith), which is in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20, R.V.).
Beyond cavil the blessing of such teaching is great, its moral power most precious, and for testimony in the world—where neither divine righteousness nor divine love exists—it is of supreme value. To manifest both, Christians are left in it (ver. 10), not righteousness without love, nor love apart from righteousness. A further “message” from the Lord is given in verse 11, (for this compare John 15:12-17): a “message” from Him Whose love passeth knowledge and never fails; and it is only by learning of Him the truth of divine righteousness and love that the learner can become a doer (see ver. 16).